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Too close for comfort?
Monday, Oct 25, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller Democratic congressional candidate Melissa Bean and the League of Conservation Voters have been using quite similar issues in their allegedly uncoordinated TV ad campaigns against GOP oldster Phil Crane. Bean says he’s out of touch with his constituents, and so does the LCV’s ad. The LCV blasts Crane for wanting to allow oil drilling in Lake Michigan and then Bean issued this statement today. For Immediate Release  It’s obvious that Crane is out of touch. And we drink the water out of Lake Michigan so we all want it to be as clean as possible. These are no-brainer issues that anyone devising a campaign against Crane would use. But Bean’s message and the LCV’s message are similar enough that they could be opening themselves up to charges of collusion. Crane is just desperate enough to use something like that, too.
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New Poll
Monday, Oct 25, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller ABC-7 Chicago just ran the results of a new poll. Barack Obama 70, Alan Keyes 20.
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New PAC
Monday, Oct 25, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller Top officials with the United Auto Workers and the Operating Engineers union have formed the Justice for All PAC. The PAC’s first filing shows it has collected about $500,000, mostly from Metro East trial lawyers. Three guesses where that dough is heading. 1) Democrat Gordon Maag’s Supreme Court race. 2) Democrat Gordon Maag’s Supreme Court race. 3) Democrat Gordon Maag’s Supreme Court race. Normally, I’d wait to write about this until tomorrow, but I figured the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform’s new campaign finance blog would be telling the world about the new PAC sometime this afternoon. Just one more reason to have my own blog this year. Those trial lawyer guys know how to ante up, eh? They’ve given the state Democratic Party so much money that Speaker Madigan has been able to blow 400 large on a Tier 3 House race in Decatur. And Maag will need the bread since the National Chamber is expected to drop at least another million into Republican Lloyd Karmeier’s coffers.
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Against all odds
Monday, Oct 25, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller Give him his due, Governor Rod Blagojevich always finds a way to break through the media clutter, even a week before a presidential election. Yesterday, he “leaked” to every reporter in town a letter to the FDA asking permission to import some flu vaccines from Britain. Gov. Rod Blagojevich says his administration has negotiated a tentative agreement to purchase at least 30,000 flu vaccinations from British wholesalers, but federal regulators must approve the deal.
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A little background on today’s issue
Monday, Oct 25, 2004 - Posted by Rich Miller The Morris Daily Herald article about the controversy in Rep. Careen Gordon’s campaign can be found here. Tribune columnist Dennis Byrne has his own take on Rep. Bob Churchill’s difficult re-election race. The most fairly balanced major media background story on the Illinois Supreme Court race that I’ve seen to date is in the Chicago Tribune. The reporter avoided the overtly anti trial lawyer snarkiness that has totally overpowered most regional articles about this campaign. While we’re on this subject, here’s an excerpt from a Southern Illinoisan story about the Illinois State Bar Association’s decision that ads for both candidates were misleading: The committee reported that Maag’s commercials paid for by the Democratic Party of Illinois regarding the Nashville Republican’s rulings are misleading. The committee also wants Karmeier to disavow advertisements paid for by JUSTPAC, a group not affiliated with the judge, for suggesting the Glen Carbon Democrat is a liar. To claim that JUSTPAC is “not affiliated with the judge,” borders on the sublime. Look at the JUSTPAC contributions to Karmeier and you’ll see they almost always contribute money to his campaign so he can run “positive” ads the same day that JUSTPAC spends money on “negative” ads attacking Maag, and it’s usually the same amount.
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